She says her 26-year-old daughter had to be rushed to Morton Hospital after shooting up and overdosing in the bathroom of a nearby Sunoco service station and convenience store — on the same day that actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead, with a needle in his arm, inside his New York City apartment.

Jones, 58, said her daughter also had a needle still stuck in her arm when she was found unconscious.

Jones said she's angry with a criminal and medical system that doesn't require drug overdose victims to attend a rehabilitation program.

"They should be forced, "she said.

Jones says she knows all too well how heroin addicts will lie to avoid getting the help they need. And she said an emergency room doctor handing out a list of rehab services to someone who has OD'd, been revived and is about to be released — as was done with her daughter — is all but useless.

The fact is, Jones said, heroin addicts will lie in order to get another fix.

"I don't trust her as far as I can throw her," Jones said.

Jones said that she and her husband's two other children, who are now in their twenties and thirties, never had drug problems and both lead responsible lives.

She said she can't explain why her second child, who quit school in the eleventh grade, descended into the world of drug abuse. She does, however, suspect that the girl was led astray by a former boyfriend.

Jones said she and her husband have done all for their daughter, in terms trying to get her counseling to get herself clean. But she said they finally got the point of telling her she had to move out and leave the family house.

"She was stealing everything from us: money, TVs," Jones said.

Jones said paramedics told her when they found her daughter in the bathroom last weekend she had already turned blue.

Jones also said it makes no sense that police or hospital personnel are forbidden from searching the belongings of a person who has overdosed. Doing so, she said, might prevent that person from going back onto the street with whatever heroin is left in their pockets.

"They should be able to seize it and arrest them — it would be a wonderful thing," Jones said.

Her daughter, Jones added, has also been arrested a number of times on shoplifting charges because of her addiction.

Jones said she contacted the Taunton Daily Gazette because of a recent story highlighting a surge of heroin overdoses in the city, resulting in at least two to three deaths in January alone, according to police.

"It's almost like the dealers are running our city instead of the police and mayor," she said.

"So many young men (in Taunton)," Jones said, "have never had jobs their whole life. They just deal drugs. And why would they when they can make more money dealing heroin?"

She added: "They should all be in jail."

Jones said she doesn't buy the argument that some drug dealers resort to selling heroin because it's tough finding a job.

"I worked my way from Dunkin' Donuts to working in a doctor's office. So it can be done," she said.

Jones said laws need to be toughened to require a drug addict to go either to rehab or jail. She said the court system's one-day apprehension warrant is insufficient to force an addict into a program.

The news of Hoffman's death in his Greenwich Village apartment, she said, "kind of really hit home."

Despite her daughter's run-ins with the law, Jones said she's mainly fearful of what lies ahead if the young woman doesn't kick her habit and get clean.